


Parasites of light

by Evilsnotbag



Series: The Owl House 'Lunar Eclipse' AU [9]
Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: An OC - Freeform, Body Horror, Chronic Illness, Chronic Pain, Eda's mysterious past, F/F, Family, Found Family, Kidnapping, Lumity, Sisterhood, Suspense, Violence, Violence against Children, dysfunctional family relationships, mystery?, slowburn, small spaces
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:53:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25861636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evilsnotbag/pseuds/Evilsnotbag
Summary: This is part nine of my The Owl House ‘Lunar Eclipse’ AU series. Please read previous parts for context.
Relationships: Amity Blight & Eda Clawthorne, Amity Blight & Emira Blight, Amity Blight & Lilith Clawthorne, Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne & King & Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne & Lilith Clawthorne, Eda Clawthorne & Luz Noceda
Series: The Owl House 'Lunar Eclipse' AU [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1765585
Comments: 96
Kudos: 444





	Parasites of light

**Author's Note:**

> CW/TW: ANGST, violence against children, small spaces, slight body horror?

#  ****Parasites of light** **

##  ****1** **

The heels of the boots in front of her shifted slightly.

Luz grabbed her pen, then scribbled a few words on the stall door, buckled her bag shut and tightened the strap so it was flush to her back. Her only weapon was the pen in her hand. She picked up the sounds of more scuffling boots. But no more rushing water - nobody was washing their hands anymore.

She knew she wouldn’t have long to tell Amity something, so she’d either have to make it quick or really easy for her friend to understand. She heard the toilet on her left flush and realized with a spike in her already triple digit heart rate that _that_ was probably what the people outside had been waiting for.

“Amity don’t unlock your door!” Luz blurted quickly as she threw herself onto the toilet and braced her legs against the door.

“What? Why?” Amity gasped.

“Do it _now!”_ A woman’s voice hissed from the other side.

“What’s going on!” Amity yelped. “Luz?!”

Something clinked onto the floor between Luz’s legs and smoke billowed up and filled the stall before she could even blink - nobody tried to get through the door. Luz covered her mouth and nose - she heard several spell circles being drawn.

“Ah-bhomination - rhise!” Amity gasped from Luz’s left.

“Don’t breathe it in!” Luz called - the lights were growing dim - was someone turning off the lights?

_What a weird place to have a dimmer, a book store... bathroom..._

Everything went black.

##  ****2** **

Lilith sighed as she flipped another burnt pancake into the trash.

She had never been good at cooking, but that was because she hadn’t really _tried_ before, or at least, that’s what she had been telling herself. Now she _was_ trying. And it still didn’t work. It was extremely frustrating.

She had never thought it was fun. Or interesting. Cooking was a _chore_. When she was a child, they’d had a cook. Eda had hung out in the kitchen a lot. That was probably because she had a crush on the scullery boy, Gristoffer. He would teach her things. Lilith used to spy on them.

After her parents passed, it felt wasteful to keep a cook for just one person. Lilith would eat lunch at the school cafeteria and usually have sandwiches or something else that didn’t need cooking in the evenings. Or she would order in. For the Ostegar party she held every year, she got everything catered.

Now that Amity was staying with her (well, she had for a few days and Lilith hoped she would at least come around often if and when she went back home), she wanted to do... _more_. Lilith herself didn’t mind living off cafeteria food, sandwiches and porridge, but a growing girl needed more than that. Variety. Vegetables. Vitamins.

She pulled the frying pan off the heat and went to open the door to the garden to air things out a bit before she tried again.

“ _Whoa_ there!” Eda took a step back as the door swung open. Her hand was raised to knock.

“Edalyn?!” Lilith stared at her sister in complete surprise. “What - what are you doing here?”

“Having a heart attack, apparently,” Eda puffed, rubbing her chest over her heart.

“Pee-eew, what’s that _smell?”_

The little skull wearing demon strolled over, waving his little hand in front of his face.

“Are you _cooking?”_ Eda asked with a smirk.

“So what if I am?” Lilith stood up straight and folded her arms across her chest.

“Food shouldn’t smell like that,” King pointed out. “You’re bad at it.”

“Hey, I can make fun of her, _you_ can’t,” Eda tapped King’s skull.

“Weh! I make fun of whoever I like!”

“I would prefer if _nobody_ made fun of me,” Lilith said coldly as Eda bent to pick King up with one arm. “ _Why_ are you here? I thought the girls were staying with me tonight?”

“They _are_ ,” Eda gave Lilith a slightly sour look. “Just thought I’d drop this off, since it was ready.” She held out the basket Lilith had brought her and Luz plums in the other day.

Lilith’s brows furrowed, then she unfolded her arms and took the basket. It was heavy.

“Oh, the potions,” she said in surprise. “... Thank you, Edalyn.”

“ _And_ you were lonely,” King huffed and turned his nose up at Eda.

“Put a sock in it, you,” Eda growled down at King.

Lilith allowed herself a little smirk. “Is that so?”

“So what if I was?” Eda countered, folding her arms so that King was squished to her side. “I’m _allowed_ to want to see my kid and say night night to her.”

“She said she didn’t want to eat dinner just the two of us!” King said in a muffled voice. “I am _highly_ offended! I’ll have you know I am _great_ company and a fascinating conversationalist!”

Lilith’s smirk intensified - Eda tutted and looked away.

“So you wanna have _dinner?”_ she asked in a petulant tone of voice.

“If you ask nicely, _maybe.”_

“I don’t want to eat in this stinky hou-ffFF!” King’s complaint was silenced by Eda covering his mouth.

“Really, Lily? You’re gonna make me beg?”

“No, not at all. I would just like for you to ask _nicely.”_

 _“Fine._ ” Eda took a deep breath. “Lily, would you like to have dinner with me?”

“Yes. Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Lilith shook her head and smiled in a superior way, then turned and walked back into the kitchen.

“Gave me heartburn,” Eda muttered, then she followed Lilith.

“Whatcha been tryin’ to make?” she said after she put King down.

“Pancakes.”

“Oh yeah, Luz mentioned that. What we working with, hm?” Eda strode forward and picked up the bowl of mixture, then gave it an experimental stir. “Needs flour.”

“Does it?”

“Yeah, it’s too runny.” She held up the wisp. “And over-worked. You’re supposed to use one of those rubber tipped things, not this.”

“Does that matter? It’s just... mashing it all together.”

Eda raised her eyebrows.

“Yes. Yes it matters.” She tipped the mixture into the sink.

Lilith tutted. “Was that really necessary?!”

“Yes. Yes it was. Let’s start from scratch. Clean slate.”

“... Could have made it alright,” Lilith muttered.

“Do you want me to show you how to do it properly or not?” Eda demanded.

“Yes, fine!”

“Well, alright then!”

“I want sprinkles on mine!” King screamed from a cupboard. “Ooh, what’s this?”

“Hey, get out of there,” Eda called to him. “What _is_ it with you and cupboards? I brought your crayons. Go sit at the table.”

Once King was distracted, the sisters got to work. After a few failed attempts, Lilith managed to produce a pancake that wasn’t burned at _all_. She took a triumphant bite, then quickly spat it out.

“What? That one looked good?” Eda chuckled.

“ _Salt!_ We used salt instead of sugar!” Lilith had to go drink a glass of water while Eda laughed so hard she had to lean on her knees.

##  ****3** **

The first thing Luz felt was that something gritty was against her cheek. Like she was laying on some rice, or crumbs or something. She went to brush it off, but found she couldn’t move her arms. Her eyes flew open with a gasp - she saw dark walls and a wooden door with a little window high up. The floor she was laying on was just dirt. The air was damp, stale and cold.

 _Where am I?! Where’s -_ she looked around, searching the small room for Amity - but she was alone.

“Hello?!” she called, feeling the fear claw its way up her spine. “Hello?! Why am I tied up?! What is this?! It’s not funny! Hello?!” she waited for a response of some kind, but nothing happened. There was no sound of anything or anyone else.

_What do I do?!_

The memory of the woman in the green cloak flashed across her mind.

 _Someone took us from the book store - where?_ **_**Why?** _ **

She looked over her shoulder - she could see her hands tied together at the wrists. She moved her legs and saw they were tied at the ankles.

 _Kidnapped_. _We’ve been kidnapped. Why have we been kidnapped?! Where’s Amity?!_

“Amity!” she shouted. “Amity, if you can hear me, say something!”

The only thing she could hear was her panting breath and the blood pounding in her ears.

“Amity!” she called again. “AMITY!”

 _I have to find her! She’s got to be super scared! I’ve got - to get - out of here!_ She wiggled around, trying to get her arms free, but she was bound very tightly. Her hands tingled. _If I can get my hands in front of me, I can bite the rope!_ She hunched her shoulders and got her hands under her bottom, then rolled over to her back and lifted them over her feet, then pushed herself up. She could barely see the rope in the dim light.

 _Knife,_ she thought and looked around for her bag - she didn’t have a knife, but she _did_ have a pencil sharpener in her pen case - but her bag was nowhere to be seen. She tried gnawing at the thick cord biding her, but it was too flush against her skin for her to get any purchase. She panted a moment, then drew a light glyph on the floor. The little ball of light stung her eyes, but she looked around quickly for anything that might help her get free. Nothing glinted apart from the metal frame of the window. Her eyes focused on it.

_That could work!_

She struggled to her feet, then stood on tip toe to be able to reach it. There was a dull, rusty edge she could rub against! She started doing so immediately. She heard the fibers of the rope crackle - yes! It was working! Okay!

 _Get free, get out of here, find Amity, go home!_ **_**That’s** _ ** _what I’m gonna do! That’s the plan, yup, gonna make it happen!_

##  ****4** **

“Amity...”

Amity opened her eyes with difficulty - her eyelids felt _so_ heavy. She closed them again, wanting to go back to sleep.

“Amity,” someone gasped out her name.

“What?” she responded grumpily. Her head hurt. She felt sick and tired and sore and... awfully stiff and cold. Something was around her throat... And something warm was over her heart - something that seared! She twitched, trying to swat it away, but the movement made her head spin and she didn’t seem to be able to move her arms?! She forced her eyes open - this wasn’t her room - this wasn’t _Lilith’s_ room - or Luz’s room - and was she lying on the _floor_ -

“Amity! Don’t... don’t move.”

Amity’s questing eyes found a darkened face a meter away.

“ _Em?!”_ Amity gasped, jerking back.

“Stop moving!”

“What? Why?!”

“It’ll make it worse!”

“What? Make what wo - “ but then the searing sensation flared up - now it felt like someone had pressed something red hot to her skin.

“Stop. Moving.” Em panted.

Amity stopped moving. After a second, the burning subsided.

“What is _happening?!”_ Amity demanded. “What have you done to me?!”

“Shh! Keep it down! They’ll be back soon!” Em hissed. Something glowed on her chest and she made a pained little groan. “They took us - I don’t know where we are - there’s something on my chest that burns when I try to move - do you have something around your neck?”

“What do you mean, ‘they took us’? And yes I do - what the heck is it?”

“I’m not sure who and I don’t know where we are and I don’t know what’s on my chest but it _wriggles_ sometimes,” Em whimpered. She sounded terrified. “I think it’s getting _bigger!”_

“Bigger? What?” Amity looked down at her own chest - there was a bulge under her cowl. _“What is that?!”_ Terror gripped her mind.

“Shh!”

“Em! What is that?!”

“I don’t know!”

“Where are we - where’s Luz?!”

“I don’t know!”

“ ** _ **Luz!**_** _”_ Amity called loudly, then gasped as whatever was on her chest tightened its hold on her skin and sent a wave of fire through her body. She could feel it all the way down into her toes!

“ _Please_ be quiet,” Em begged. “Ed shouted, he shouted a lot and now he’s... Amity I think he’s really hurt...”

“Ed?” Amity panted, looking around. There was a mound lying by their feet. “What’s wrong with him?!”

“I don’t know!” Em whimpered. She sounded on the verge of tears. “I just keep... getting more and more tired. I went to sleep and then you were here, too.”

“How long have we been here?”

“I don’t know...”

“Em I’m scared.”

“Me too.”

“So this... really isn’t a joke? It’s not some... big, elaborate prank?”

“No!” Em sniffed. “How could you ask me that?!” The thing on Em’s chest glowed again and she curled in on herself, whimpering.

“Em? Em!” Amity lurched forward, then screamed out as the thing on her chest pulsated and filled her veins with fire. Her body twitched in response and another wave of pain overtook the first one, then a third. By the fifth one, Amity was grateful for the darkness that engulfed her. She passed out.

##  ****5** **

“I wonder what’s keeping the girls?” Lilith said as she looked up at the clock. “It’s eight thirty.”

“Did you give them a curfew?” Eda chuckled.

“Yes. _Eight thirty._ It’s a school night.”

Eda tutted. “Cut them some slack,” she said and waved a hand.

“Amity is never late,” Lilith glanced up at the clock again.

“Probably just lost track of time.”

“She’s _never_ late, Edalyn.” Lilith put her hand down firmly on the table, then got to her feet.

“What are you gonna do, go wait by the door?” Eda chuckled again.

“As a matter of fact, I am.”

Eda rolled her eyes, then followed her sister.

“I’m sure they’re just off somewhere being disgustingly cute together.”

“What if something happened, Eda?”

“Lily, don’t _worry_ , they’re fine. I never kept a curfew in my life and - “

“They’re not _you_ , Edalyn, they’re good girls!” Lilith glared at her sister.

“If they’re such good girls, then why are they late, hm?” Eda said back, giving Lilith an angry look.

“Being late doesn’t make them _not_ good girls - that’s not what this is even about, ugh, just go back to the kitchen, I’ll wait by myself!” Lilith stomped ahead.

“Aw, come on Lily!” Eda rolled her eyes again. “I know you’re new to the whole having a kid living with you and stuff but you gotta calm down, alright?”

“Don’t tell me to calm down!”

“Stop freaking out then!”

“My reaction is _entirely_ appropriate!” Lilith wrenched the door open and looked out at the moonlit lawns. Nobody was caught mid-disgustingly-cute doorstep interaction and nobody was coming up the graveled path. Lilith planted her feet, folded her arms, then glared at the gate in the distance. “If they’re not here in five minutes I’m going to go looking for them.”

“Would you _relax?”_

“You do realize that it’s quite irregular for a teacher to have a student stay at her place of residence, right? I can _not_ let her get hurt on my watch! In fact I don’t think it’s even allowed for students to stay with their teachers, unless they’re related. Certainly it would be frowned upon by the school.”

“Pff. Who cares what they say.”

“ _I_ care, Edalyn. I work there.”

“Not as if they’re gonna fire you, they _wuv_ you.”

“It doesn’t matter if they love me, if I do something that would hurt the school’s reputation, I’m a goner. What do you think the school board would say?”

“’Look at her go, taking in a kid in a difficult situation, let’s give her a raise’?” Eda grumbled.

Lilith gave her a sidelong look.

“Eeedaa!” a screechy whine came from behind them. “Don’t leave me alone in this spooky old stink house!” King came scampering down the hallway and ran to hug Eda’s leg. “It’s scary!”

“We’re waiting for the girls to get here, then we’re going home, you little rascal.”

“I’m tired!” King whined. “I want upsies!”

“Ugh. You _are_ a baby.” Eda bent to pick him up.

Lilith leaned back and looked at the clock in the hallway. It was eight thirty four.

“I’m going.” She grabbed her cloak.

“What, you’re gonna just leave me here?” Eda asked.

“You _could_ come with me.”

“The gargoyles, Eda, the gargoyles _whisper_ ,” King shivered in Eda’s arms.

“Fine,” Eda sighed. “Can I borrow a cloak? It’s getting chilly.”

##  ****6** **

The sisters walked quickly down the cobbled streets. Lilith glared at everyone they passed.

“Gee, would you take it _down_ a notch? Trying not to draw attention to myself here,” Eda muttered, pulling at the hood of the borrowed cloak.

“You should be less of a criminal then,” Lilith snapped back.

“Yeah, sure, I’ll get right on that,” Eda scoffed.

“Yes, _we get it_ , you’re sisters, can you stop being so catty? It was funny at first but now it’s _boring,”_ King complained.

“Do you want to walk by yourself, mister?” Eda asked, sounding grumpy.

“No it’s cold on my little feet!”

They arrived at the Book Nook. There was music playing and people were wearing stranger than usual attire.

“Watch out, Lily; _nerds_.” Eda held out a hand to stop Lilith from walking forward. “You never know what they might do.”

“Grow up, Edalyn.” She pushed past Eda and marched to the door. “Out of my way!”

The people clustered there hugged the wall as Lilith strode through. Eda followed with a snicker.

“You take the left side, I’ll take the right. Meet back here when you find them,” Lilith said over her shoulder, then stomped off, glaring around.

“Since you ask so nicely,” Eda muttered.

“Eww, these basement dwellers really smell,” King complained. “Have they never heard of deodorant?”

They looked around the crowded store for a few minutes, then Eda spotted something.

“You!” she grabbed a cardboard armor wearing dweeb. “Where did you get that thing?!” She pointed to the sparkle thing in their hand.

“F-found it in the bathroom - hey! Finders keepers!”

Eda snatched it from them.

“I found it, I’m keeping it,” Eda growled dangerously. “Where’s the bathroom?”

“Over there!” the person scuttled off with their friends, looking terrified. Eda looked around and saw the sign. “Didn’t want it anyway, it’s broken, basically garbage, what’s the big idea...” they muttered sulkily.

Eda headed to the bathroom, bypassing the queue.

“Luz, you in here?” she called loudly. Everyone in there looked round at her. “Amity? Come on kids, it’s past curfew or whatever.” A few people snickered.

“Look, that stall is all busted. Guess the nerds party harder than I thought,” King observed. Eda looked over. She noticed bright purple splashes on the black and white tiles, then held up the sparkle thing. Her fingers had stains of the same ink.

“Oh _heck_ ,” she muttered as she hurried over. She looked into the stall, then tried to move the door that was hanging off its hinges. It creaked, then crashed to the floor - everybody jumped. Eda ignored the mutters and stares. The stall was empty, but the floor and one wall had smeared drops of purple ink.

“Ugh, what a mess. Glad I don’t have to clean it up,” King said.

“This isn’t good,” Eda touched one of the ink splotches - it was dry. “Better go tell Lily. Hate it when she’s right.” She turned around, then noticed some purple writing on the door on the floor. She squatted down to read it. “That’s Luz’s handwriting! ‘Eda lady green cloak hood eye scar, Luz, Amity’.”

_She left us a message._

“That’s my clever girl,” Eda gave a bitter smile, then stood up. Over by the trash can lay something else she recognized. She hurried over and picked up Amity’s book bag.

“Uh oh,” King said worriedly. “Something really bad happened, didn’t it?”

“Yeah. When I find whoever did it, it won’t be ink smeared over the walls. You!” she pointed to a lady who was trying to sidle past her out the door. “Have you seen a tall woman in a green cloak with a scar over one eye?”

“Uhh, no?”

“I’m looking for two girls, one with green hair, the other with brown hair, yay high,” she held up her hand to her collar bone. “Fourteen and thirteen, green haired one in a school uniform, the other in a purple and white hoodie with cat ears on - have you seen them?”

“This place is packed, lady!”

“That’s not an answer!” King shook his tiny fist at the woman.

“No, I don’t know, leave me alone!” She scurried out the door.

“Anyone else seen them?!” Eda demanded of the room at large. The people in there exchanged worried looks and silently shook their heads. “Bunch of useless dummies,” she muttered, then barged out the door. “LILY!” she shouted as she strode back to the entrance, Amity’s bag swinging over her shoulder.

“What, did you find them? Where were they - “ Lilith came hurrying over from the other side of the store.

“Didn’t find them. Found this.” She held up Amity’s bag and the sparkle thing. “Luz left us a message. I think they were taken.”

“What, what do you mean?” Lilith blanched and grabbed Amity’s bag. “Eda, what do you mean?!”

“Luz left us a message on a broken bathroom stall, in purple ink,” Eda held up the sparkle thing and shook it. “This is Luz’s. A tall lady in a green cloak and hood with a scar over one eye.”

“I’m going to call the guard!”

“Wait!” Eda yanked Amity’s bag back, pulling Lilith closer. “Is that a good idea?!”

“What?! Of course it is! It’s - “

“What if - “ Eda leaned in. “What if this is because of a certain something you didn’t want to get out?”

Lilith drew in a sharp breath.

“Do you have beef with some green hooded broad with a scar?”

“What? No, I don’t know? Do you?!”

“Maybe.”

“Edalyn!”

“Oh man...” King said worriedly. Lilith looked down at him, then back up at Eda. “I remember someone who likes green who’s a lady with a scar...”

“Who?!”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions, shall we?” Eda said in a strained voice. “Let’s ask someone who might have seen them leave.” She strode over to the register. “Hey - have you seen a tall lady in a green cloak with a scar over one eye? And or two kids, one with green hair, the other with a purple and white hoodie?”

“Huh? What? How am I supposed to know? We’ve had hundreds of customers tonight!”

“You better start remembering quick, pal, or this will be your last shift,” Eda growled.

Lilith looked around quickly, spotted something that made her heart leap, then stepped up to the counter. “Bring me. Your manager,” she demanded in an icy tone.

“R-right away, Miss Clawthorne! Sorry, Miss Clawthorne!” the clerk stepped back hurriedly.

The manager came over and led them to his office.

“What seems to be the problem, coven leader?” he asked nervously.

“I need access to your store’s surveillance demon,” Lilith stated. Her face was calm but her heart was racing a mile a minute.

“Oh, we don’t have one, that’s - that’s _illegal_ , that is,” the man blubbered, stepping in front of a safe.

“Seriously?” Eda pushed him out of the way and bent down, drew a spell circle, then popped open the door. “Hello, little guy.”

“A prisoner!” King gasped, jumping down from Eda’s arms. “How dare you enslave one of my precious brethren?!” He reached out for the three eyed little demon. “Come on brother, we’re getting you out of here.”

“Oh, thank you, friend...” the skinny demon got to their feet and limped toward King. Eda grabbed them both and stood back up.

“When was the last time you even fed this poor little dude?!” she demanded, glaring at the manager. 

“We’ve been having so many thefts lately! I would have been fired if I hadn’t - “

“Zip it, jerk!” Eda pushed past him out the door.

“I will be back to talk about this later,” Lilith said curtly. “Mark. My. Words.”

The man swallowed.

Outside, Eda ducked into an alleyway and put King and the other demon down on a box.

“Here, have a snack,” Eda dug into her hair and pulled out a bag of Hex Mix. “We need to know if you’ve seen someone tonight.”

“I’ve seen _everyone_ tonight,” the little demon said as they ripped open the bag.

“Great. We’re looking for two girls. And one tall lady with a scar over her eye. In a green cloak.”

The demon chewed and swallowed, then their third eye opened and started to glow.

“Yes. They were here.”

“Show me,” Eda held out her hand. “Please.”

The demon grabbed Eda’s hand and closed their eyes, and so did Eda. A stream of images flashed across her internal vision.

“There!” she gasped. The images stopped. “Go back a bit...”

Eda saw a hooded woman leading people out of the bathroom. There was a note on the door that said ‘Closed for cleaning’ that the woman took with her. Two people behind her were carrying Luz and Amity. The girls looked asleep. At one point, they were stopped by someone and the woman in the green cloak put on a gentle smile and patted Luz on the arm - the curious person made an ‘aaw, that’s adorable’ face and Eda assumed the woman had said the girls had fainted out of over excitement or something.

“Dang it... It’s her.”

“It’s _who?!”_ Lilith demanded.

“Ingalill Grönvall. She’s leading people out that are carrying our kids.”

“Oh crap,” King groaned.

“Grönvall the _smuggler?”_ Lilith asked, grabbing Eda by the arm. “She’s a wanted criminal!”

“Yeah, I _know_ ,” Eda pulled her arm out of her sister’s grasp.

“What does she want with you?!”

“Revenge?”

“ _Revenge?!”_

“I _might..._ have let her take the fall for a thing we did, a few years back.”

“ _And?”_ King prompted.

“And I might also be the reason she has that... scar.”

Lilith stared at her sister in shock.

##  ****7** **

Ransom notes were always tricky to put together, Ingalill observed as she sat on her desk. Should you go straight for the jugular, as it were? Or should you be a little more... artful?

She smirked down at the paper. It was just so much more fun if you could do it with a bit of _flare_. She took a bite of her apple as she pondered the next lines.

It wasn’t often that she got to do a ransom job, but when such a juicy opportunity waltzed into her life, she would be a fool not to take advantage. It had so much _potential!_ If she played her cards right, she might be set for life.

##  ****8** **

“So this is all _your_ fault!” Lilith demanded.

“Maybe!” Eda snapped back. “Maybe it is!” She looked away, her angry mask falling. “I don’t know how she found out about Luz, I haven’t seen her in years - I thought she was in Shincity, still.” She pulled out a money bag from her hair and held it out to the little demon. “Here, go get yourself a proper meal or something.”

“Thank you, stranger.” They jumped off the box and scurried away.

Lilith took a breath - getting furious with Eda wasn’t going to find the girls. “ _Where_ would she take them?”

“No idea... but I think I might know where we can find out.”

They hurried through the city, away from the center. The streets became narrower and the store fronts became more and more shabby. When they reached a dingy looking park, Eda stopped and pulled Lilith into a shadow.

“We can’t go in there looking like this,” she said as she started to take off her borrowed cloak. “They’ll let me in, but if they see _you_ it’ll be game over, you understand?”

“I’m _not_ waiting outside,” Lilith said firmly.

“I’m not asking you to. You just gotta not look like yourself so much. Here, put this on.”

“What’s this?” Lilith took the thing Eda held out to her.

“Eyepatch. Roll your sleeves up. We gotta do something about your hair too.”

“Why don’t I just cast a spell? I’m _quite_ proficient in illusion magic, you know.”

“Yes, I _know_ , Lily,” Eda said, rolling her eyes. “But if illusion magic was enough to disguise someone in the place we’re going, it wouldn’t still _exist.”_

After a few minutes, Eda stepped back and admired the result.

“You might not have the stance, but you certainly get the attitude I was going for,” she chuckled.

“She looks ready to kill someone,” King whispered.

“ _Exactly.”_

“Just keep behind me and don’t say a word. And gimme your wallet.”

“What, why?” Lilith tugged at the scarf covering half her face.

“Because you’re just gonna lose it otherwise.”

Lilith reluctantly held out her money pouch. Eda shoved it into her hair.

“Just glare at people, good, just like that, and don’t say a word to anyone. Let’s go.”

They passed the park and headed down a narrow alleyway. At the very end was a blue door. Eda knocked on it. A hatch slid open and a single eye appeared behind it.

“Password?”

“The Emperor can eat my shorts,” Eda said, nudging Lilith hard in the side to keep her from gasping too loudly. The eye narrowed, then the hatch slid shut and the lock clicked open. “Thanks Billy.”

“Nice to see you again, Eda. Who’s your friend?”

“Viper. Have a drink on me, later.” She put a few coins into the cyclops’ hand. “Now let’s get tanked, you rugged old bat!” She grabbed Lilith round the shoulders and dragged her inside.

“Is this the Olive Branch?!” Lilith hissed under her breath.

“Yeah, now shush!”

“But - “

Eda dragged Lilith forward. The low ceilinged room was full of shadowy people and multicolored vapor from various illicit smoking utensils. They reached the crowded bar and Eda shoved her way to the front.

“Timmy my boy! Two Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters and two cherry fizz chasers for me and my friend. And a chocolate milk for the demon.”

“And peanuts!” King added.

“Sure, and peanuts.”

“Been a while since I saw you, Owl Lady.”

“Been busy,” Eda answered with a smirk. She plonked down a little pile of coins onto the bar disk. “Keep the change.”

Timmy eyed the coins; it was a lot more than the order cost. He looked up at Eda, then glanced at Lilith. 

“What can I do for you?” Timmy leaned forward and swept the coins out of sight, then started mixing drinks.

“Need to know if an old friend is back in town,” Eda said in an undertone.

“Which friend?”

“Tall, blonde, likes green. Big scar over one eye. Drinks Devil’s Nectar with a splash of lemon. Legs. For. Days.”

“Ah.” Timmy nodded and grabbed a bottle. “Seen her around. Was in here the other night.”

“Know where she’s holed up?”

Timmy bent to pick up a pack of peanuts.

“Scrat might know.”

“Scrat?” Eda raised her eyebrows. “He’s out?”

“Free as a bird. Drunk as a skunk.” Timmy looked over at the corner behind Eda. “Play nice.” He put the drinks down on the counter. King wiggled out of Eda’s arms to get to his chocolate milk. It had a jaunty little umbrella in it.

“Thanks, Timmy my boy,” Eda smiled at him and gave his cheek a firm pat. “Tell me when your moms need a refill on the ol’ liniment.”

“Right you are.”

Timmy turned away and took the next order and Eda picked up their drinks.

“Is this safe to drink?” Lilith hissed.

“Yeah. You’d be a fool not to. Best bartender in the business.”

“This is an illegal establishment,” Lilith huffed.

“Yes, and?”

“Could be anything in there.” Lilith pointed to the drink.

“I’ll have yours, then.” Eda took a long sip of her own and smacked her lips. “Scrat is a slippery little bastard. He doesn’t take kindly to sober people. Gotta at least have it on my breath.”

“We don’t have time for this!”

“Listen, Lily, I know you were two seconds away from a heart attack twenty minutes ago, but you gotta trust me here - “

“How are you not freaking the fuck out, Edalyn?!” Lilith demanded in a hiss.

Eda huffed. “I am freaked the fuck out, Lily, but our are kids in danger. _They_ are my priority. Actually losing my shit is not currently an option. If it would help I would have kicked down the door and threatened everyone with a slow, painful death, but that would not be _conducive_ to our getting information we can actually _use_.”

Lilith stared at Eda.

“So if this takes five minutes, it’s going to take five minutes. Ingalill isn’t stupid enough to harm them, she’ll want to ransom them to us.”

“Ransom?” Lilith breathed.

“She’ll be holed up in a place she can defend and control, like the caves near the shore, or the hills outside the cattle district. If we can just get there, we’ll get the kids and...”

“And what?”

“ _If_ she’s taken them because of _me_ , that’ll be that, but if she’s taken them because of me _and something else_...”

“That is a problem we’re going to have to deal with _later,”_ Lilith said quickly. “Go talk to the scrap.”

“Scrat.”

“ _Whatever_.” Lilith held up her hand and used the other to grab her drink. “I’ll stay with the demon.”

“Be right back. Be ready to head out.”

“Gonna bring Luz some peanuts,” King muttered. “Timmy! I require a baggie!”

Lilith took a seat on a bar stool while King stuffed a little bag. The noise and smoke and smells and heartbreaking worry was threatening to overwhelm her.

“You want a peanut?” King held one out to her.

“No thank you.”

_Amity..._

Horrible images flashed in her mind. Amity unconscious. Amity with broken and missing limbs. Amity beaten to a pulp. Amity screaming in agony, someone standing over her with an axe, a mace, a sword, a whip - she shook her head.

 _She has got to be alive._ She wanted to say, or think, that she would have _felt_ it somehow, if Amity had - _No stop it, stop it, she’s_ ** _ **alive**_** _and I’m going to get her back. And then heads are going to_ ** _ **roll**_** _..._

##  ****9** **

It had taken ages, but finally, _finally_ , the rope snapped!

“Yes!” Luz panted, then turned and wiggled her scuffed and scratched wrists until they were free. She sank down on the ground, her sore and sweaty back against the door. Now for the rope around her ankles. She’d had time to think during the twenty or so minutes she’d spent working on the rope binding her wrists. She took out her right earring and looked at the little pin. She pulled her feet close, then started working away at the thick fibers. It was going to take a long time to work her way through it, she knew that.

 _But I’ve got to. I’ve got to get free. Then I’ll get out. And I’ll find Amity. And we’ll go home. Yep. That’s the plan. And I’ll make waffles tomorrow morning. And we’ll eat them with plum jam and then we’ll read_ **_**all** _ ** _day and it’ll be great!_

##  ****10** **

Eda gestured for Lilith and King to follow her.

“Carry me!” King held up his arms. Lilith frowned down at him, then picked him up.

“You know where to go?” Lilith asked as she stepped up to Eda.

“Yeah,” Eda muttered. “Let’s get out of here.”

They left through the back door and entered another alley. Lilith threw off the impromptu disguise.

When they were airborne, Eda turned her staff west.

“Follow me! Step on it, Owlbert!” She gripped the staff tightly, then shot off.

“Sapphire, after them!”

The air thundered in their ears as they sped through the cool night air. It felt like they flew for hours, but by the moon’s position, Lilith knew they must have been travelling for less than thirty minutes.

Eda signaled to slow down.

“There,” she pointed toward the ground as Lilith slid up alongside her and King.

Below them was a little valley. A single light could be seen along one steeply rising side.

“Scrat said he delivered oil to this place. Wasn’t allowed inside. Let’s land in that clump of trees and scope it out.”

They landed softly and pushed through the dense underbrush to get to a good vantage point.

“I only see one guard on my side, how many on yours?” Eda asked in a whisper.

“None on the cliffs above,” King reported.

Lilith blinked hard, then stared into the distance again. That far away, things were just a blur.

“I... can’t tell, Eda,” Lilith admitted reluctantly.

“What?” Eda looked over at Lilith’s designated area. “There’s one guy by that outcrop. Think you might need glasses, sis, but that’s a problem for tomorrow - I say we throw a sleep spell at the closest one and sneak our way in.”

“Sneaking isn’t really my forte.”

“We’ll go slow and steady,” Eda said in a reassuring tone. “We don’t want to call attention to ourselves - don’t touch anything in there. Bound to be all sorts of no-no items and liberated goods. Perhaps a booby trap or two.”

“What if we’re caught?”

“Then _anything_ goes,” Eda muttered darkly. “Hard to make a plan when you don’t know the layout or how many people there are inside. We’re just going to have to wing it. Luckily, winging it _is_ my forte.”

They snuck closer, scuttling from tree to tree. Lilith felt as if she made a lot of noise. Once they were in position, Eda readied a sleep spell and slid it up her arm. She leaned forward, took careful aim, then loosed the spell. It hummed through the air and hit the seated guard on the leg. His head leaned back - his helmet went ‘tink’ when it came in contact with the wall.

The wide cave mouth was littered with stalagmites that provided plenty of shelter as they slowly made their way through. At the back of the cave was a witch-made hole - it made a sparsely lit, straight and narrow corridor into the heart of the cliff.

Lilith’s heart was beating hard in her chest as they entered, and nearly exploded when a mushroom slowly bloomed with bio luminescence over Eda’s shoulder. Eda picked a cap for herself, then held one out for Lilith.

“Mark the way,” she mouthed. Lilith nodded and took the already fading mushroom.

They proceeded carefully down the corridor and stopped when they reached a T-cross. The right fork was more well lit. Eda started down the left fork without hesitation. Lilith wanted to ask why, but figured the light probably meant that _that_ corridor was more frequently used. Even though they must have only moved about fifty meters into the cliff, the air quality had already dropped. It must not be particularly well ventilated.

They reached a large room lit by torches. It was full of boxes and cages. Creatures scuttled around inside them, hissing. 

“Holy crap,” Eda whispered, pointing at an open chest. It held a mound of sealed spell scrolls. “She’s doing well for herself.”

Something caught Lilith’s attention - a large crate had the Emperor’s Coven’s symbol on it. She knew bandits had accosted a caravan carrying coven goods a few weeks back - this Ingalill Grönvall person must have been behind it! The moment of anger distracted her and she didn’t look where she was going - her foot snagged on something and she went crashing to the ground, dragging a tarpaulin and several glass objects with her. As Eda drew a spell circle, she saw a dark feather on her arm - the magic cut out - the glass shattered against the rocky floor. People started shouting from down the corridor. Eda knew they had seconds, if that.

 _The curse! Okay, Eda,_ **_**think** _ ** _\- you can’t cast, you are going to transform any minute now - which_ **_**would** _ ** _be a terrific distraction while Lily and King get the girls out - that’s all that matters. Lily’ll take care of her. And King. And Owlbert._

“King, get Lily, find the girls!” Eda hissed, smacked the demon onto her staff, tossed them both toward Lilith, then stepped out from behind the boxes and started walking toward the ruckus.

“What is she _doing?!”_ Lilith gasped as she got to her feet.

“Shush-ush-ush! Upsies!” King whispered, reaching up for Lilith to grab him. “I think she’s buying us some time!” He dragged the staff with him.

Lilith stared at the owl topped staff in King’s hands, then turned her head quickly to look after her sister.

 _Why didn’t she just - why did she give me her_ **_**staff** _ ** _-_

“Let’s go! Down that way!” King yanked at the front of Lilith’s dress, pointing down the hallway to their right. “We need to find Luz! And Amity, too!”

The names jolted Lilith into action. Reluctantly, she hurried down the corridor.

##  ****11** **

_“Finally!”_ Eda said as she marched toward the approaching men. “I’ve been wandering around this dang place for like half an hour - the guys at the front said to just go in, ever think to put up _signs_ or something?! This is a dang maze!” She waved at the men dismissively and they slowed, confused.

“Who - “

“Bah, you don’t even know who I am - what is this, amateur hour?” she turned to the other man and gave him an appraising look. “You know who I am?”

“No, uh, ma’am - “

_Ma’am! Hah. Got ‘em._

“I am Eda the Owl Lady and I have an appointment with your boss. You, take my scarf, you, hold my bag.” She thrust Lilith’s scarf and Amity’s book bag into the guards’ arms, then strode ahead. “And what does a lady have to do to get a drink around here, hm? _Nobody_ to guide me, _no_ signs, _no_ drinks - not even a bowl of _peanuts_ \- you’re running an extremely substandard operation here. My people will not be pleased.”

“Uh - “

“Come on, Wingus, Dingus, keep up!” Eda waved for them to follow. They reached a fork and Eda stopped and looked at them. _“Well?”_

“Oh, uh... this way, ma’am,” Wingus pointed down the left corridor.

“Finally, he _speaks_ ,” Eda huffed and rolled her eyes. “Well, lead the way, why don’t you?”

The man blushed and scurried forward, holding the book bag in front of him as if he was afraid it was going to explode. As he moved, Eda marked the wall with the mushroom.

After a minute or so, the corridor opened up into another dank store room. There were boxes and sacks stacked higgledy-piggledy all over the place. On the other side was a pair of double doors.

“I can take it from here, boys, give me my stuff - go put up some signs, right now!”

“Y-yes, ma’am,” Dingus said as he handed over the scarf.

“At once, ma’am.”

They hurried off, looking embarrassed.

Eda huffed when they had loped out of sight, then muttered: “Bunch o’ amateurs...”

She was just about to start heading off down the other corridor, when the double doors opened.

“Ólafur, is that you? I’ve finished the - “ Ingalill Grönvall said, then looked up and spotted Eda.

“Oh, hello old friend.”

“ _You!”_

“Now, now,” Eda held up her hands in an attempt to calm the situation. “I know we didn’t part on the _best_ of terms, but - “

Ingalill drew her dagger and waved her finger at the same time - a glowing green glyph appeared under Eda’s feet.

“Slowed down with age, haven’t you?” Ingalill let out a triumphant bark of laughter. “Was a time where nobody could get the drop on you.”

“Negation spell, huh?” Eda said with a shrug. “Guess you got me.”

“What are you doing here?” Ingalill narrowed her eyes and started walking around Eda. “How did you get in?!”

Eda tried to hide her surprise, unsure if the cloaked woman prowling around her had caught it.

 _What is_ ** _ **going on**_** _here?_ She thought, feeling confused. _Stall, Eda, stall!_

“I heard you were back in town. Just _had_ to come see you.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah - been thinking a lot about you lately. We had such good times, didn’t we?”

“Oh, yes, the best. Up until the moment you left me for _dead!”_

“You’d have done the same, kitten,” Eda gave her a sassy smirk. “Barely got out of there myself.”

“That’s not how I remember it...” Ingalill smiled dangerously.

“In any case - I wanted to come and apologize, and... see if you wanted to... get together again?” Eda turned her head to follow the woman with her eyes. She didn’t want her to get behind her.

Ingalill stopped and let out a surprised and offended laugh.

“I see age has made you _slow minded_ as well,” she snapped her fingers and green vines shot up out of the ground. They wrapped themselves around Eda’s wrists, then encased her hands. “Doesn’t really matter. But it feels a little anticlimactic, seeing you again - when you’ve been reduced to... _this_ ,” she waved her hand, indicating all of Eda.

“Hey, I look great - “

“No, darling, no you don’t.”

“As I remember it, we never spent that much time in the light in any case. Bet I could still make you - “

“Shut your mouth, you wretched old crone!” Ingalill lunged forward and put the dagger to Eda’s throat. “We _are_ going to have some fun - and by _we_ I of course mean _me.”_

##  ****12** **

_I can’t believe I let this happen,_ Lilith thought as she scuttled through the maze of tunnels. _This is all my fault - even if it’s Eda’s past that’s come back to haunt her, Amity would never have been put in danger if I could only handle a little pain - if I hadn’t leaned on her - if I hadn’t asked her to take me home after the Night of the First Emperor,_ ** _ **none**_** _of this would have happened!_ Her mind was fraying at the edges - there was a logical part of her that understood that Amity and Luz would have been friends anyway, but they probably wouldn’t have been at the book shop together today, if Lilith had managed on her own that day.

 _There was no reason to take Amity too!_ Unless she tried to step in and keep Luz from getting taken - which Amity would do, Lilith knew. Whatever the reason, _Lilith_ was ultimately the one who had put the girl in danger.

 _And what about Luz?_ A critical part of her asked. _You’ve just been thinking about Amity this whole time. Amity hurt. Amity injured. What about Luz? She’s also just a child. Also innocent. And she has no magic. Selfish in your concern, aren’t you?_

 _I am going to find_ ** _ **both**_** _girls!_ Lilith argued back, but she felt the guilt flare within her, doubling in size. _It’s my fault and I can’t even care properly. Selfish._ ** _ **Selfish.**_**

King brought her out of herself by tapping her chest.

“Hey - we’ve been here before!” he whispered, pointing at the wall ahead of them. There was a smear of bio-luminescent gunk at around head height.

“Have we been going in circles?!” Lilith hissed, the panic rising in her chest.

“We’ve passed a bunch of passageways - there’s places we haven’t been! Let’s just keep looking - they have to be here! Maybe we should split up?”

“No!” Lilith tightened her grip on the little demon. “You’re right, they have to be here _somewhere_ \- “ she shook her head to try to clear it. If she descended into panic and worry she might make another mistake. And there was no big sister to take the fall for her this time.

 **_**Focus** _ ** _, Lilith. Focus._

“Where would they keep prisoners? In a dungeon. Dungeons are usually down,” King pointed toward the floor. “Let’s see if we can find stairs or something!”

“Yes, stairs, good idea.”

They set off again. After a minute they came to a fork - the right tunnel had a mark on its right wall. Lilith turned left and marked the wall with two smears this time; for the second try.

This corridor curved ever so slightly. Up ahead, a permanent light shone. They approached it carefully. The tunnel opened up into a room with bunk beds along the left side. In the middle was a fire pit. The coals in it were glowing a dull red. Lilith narrowed her eyes at the beds, trying to see if any were occupied. A sudden snore almost made her drop King. He clung to her dress and gave her a reproachful look, then he patted her collar bone excitedly and pointed across the room.

_Stairs!_

##  ****13** **

“Let’s not get too carried away, shall we?” Eda muttered. “These really necessary?” She wiggled one foot. The chain clinked.

“Never know with you,” Ingalill said tersely. “You would do just about anything to get your sorry ass out of trouble.” She grabbed Eda by the chin, then thrust her hand into her hair.

“Hey! _Get_ your filthy hands out of my hair, you _lunatic!”_

Ingalill rummaged around for a second, then pulled out a pouch.

“What a rat’s nest,” she commented, then waved a hand - Eda was yanked off her feet with a yelp. She was now dangling upside down. A shower of objects clinked, clanked, clattered or crashed onto the floor. Eda glared at Ingalill.

“You satisfied?!” she snarled.

Ingalill waved her hand again and all the things on the floor soared into a box on the ornate desk in front of Eda. Right next to it lay Luz’s bag.

“Not by a long shot,” she hummed as she picked up a fat little bottle of golden potion.

“Don’t mess with that,” Eda said warningly.

“Oh? Is it valuable?”

“Not to the likes of you,” Eda muttered. “Unless you’ve got - “ she had to take a breath, then rolled her eyes. “Arthritis. I should take that now, do you mind?”

“Old age is a curse,” Ingalill smirked.

Eda huffed.

“And I would mind.” She dropped the bottle. It smashed on the floor.“I have got good news for you on the old age front - you won’t be getting much _older_.” The knife was out and against Eda’s throat again before she could even blink. A sharp little nick on her Adam’s apple told her the edge was keen as mustard. A warm drop of blood rolled down her throat and over her cheek - she had to blink to not get it in her eye. Ingalill grabbed her face, staring at the blood.

_Just a little longer,_ Eda thought. She could feel the prickling of feathers on her arms, legs and torso now. _You are going to be_ ** _ **ever**_** _so sorry in a minute or two, you hot bastard._

“Remind me how you got that scar again?” Eda smirked.

The blow hurt more than she had expected - she could see the hilt of the blade as she swung back and forth.

“You know very well how I got it!” Ingalill snapped.

“Fifteen - “ Eda spat out the blood pooling in the roof of her mouth. “Fifteen years ago, right?”

“ _Seventeen!_ Almost to the day!”

“Never was the sentimental type, myself. Can’t use the old come hither look anymore to charm your way out of trouble, can y - “

The second blow made Eda see stars.

“My former conventional beauty was a _crutch_ ,” Ingalill said menacingly. “One thing you told me stuck with me - you’ve got to own your narrative. And I have to say... _Fear_ is a useful weapon. One look and the _fähund**_ panting in my ear _cowers_. The dirty dog trying to undercut me because I’m a woman bends to my will. The _pups_ trying to cheat me out of a fortune wet their pants.”

“Could have sent me a basket of fruit or something,” Eda rasped, grinning blearily at the gently spinning room. “As a _thank you - “_

The third blow left her gasping. A high pitched tone rang in her right ear and the vision in that eye went darker. No. Her vision was getting _keener_. The lights became _brighter_. And the triumphant smile on Ingalill’s face... _vanished_.

##  ****14** **

The world was heavy. Just breathing was a test of strength. Amity didn’t dare try to open her eyes this time. The thing wrapped around her neck felt tighter than before, and the thing on her chest felt like a rock that had been in harsh sunlight all day. It was uncomfortably hot, but it didn’t sear like before. Instead, there was a rhythmic pull on her skin.

She didn’t move. She had learned her lesson last time.

“Em?” she whispered.

There was a sharp intake of breath.

“Mih-Mittens?”

“How long... was I out?”

“I don’t know - are you okay? I thought you - I thought you were - “

“Keep it down in there!” a voice barked from behind Amity - her eyes flew open for a moment. The lights stung and the thing on her chest seared warningly.

“L-let us out, _please_ ,” Em pleaded. Her voice was hoarse.

“No can do, little Miss Rich Girl. Mommy and Daddy gots to _pay_ first.”

“ _Pay?!”_ Amity said, then groaned as her chest burned.

_Ransom! They want to ransom us! They’re not going to kill us! Is that why they took me and Luz? Money? Where is she? On the other side of Ed?_

“Gonna live like kings, ain’t we, Ern?” the man chuckled. “What you gonna get first, when we get our cut?”

“Gonna fee the dentift. Get me fome lovely new teef.”

“Outta gold, amirite?”

“Better - cuftom fitted denturef wif real teef!”

“Gonna miss that lisp of yours, friend.”

“What lifp?”

Amity chanced a look round the room.

“Where’s Luz?” she asked.

“Don’t you worry your little mind about that,” the man that was not Ern snickered.

 _They’re not ransoming her with us?_ Despite the hot thing against her skin, her chest went cold.

“Boss’ gots a special interest customer that been waiting for something exotic like that - ooh, Ern, won’t it be nice to see Sten and Grus again? Been gone so long on that last delivery, bet Grus’ been able to grow his beard back!”

_They’re going to send her far away! No!_

“We’ll pay for her too!” Amity said quickly, biting her cheek not to cry out.

“Girlie, not even _your_ Mommy and Daddy will be able to match our special customer’s price, oh no they won’t,” not-Ern snickered and banged something against metal.

“I want to talk to your boss!” Amity demanded, summoning up energy reserves from somewhere.

“Oi! Ftop wiggling around!”

“Amity, stop!” Em begged.

“No, I want to talk to your _boss!”_ Amity shouted. “Luz comes with _us!_ She - _rrrgghhhh!”_

She opened one eye to see Em’s boots just below her chin - and behind that, Em’s chalk white face.

“Stop!” she begged.

“No! Luz is _not - “_

Em’s eyes closed, then her feet pressed down on the thing on Amity’s chest - there was a brief flash of blinding, burning, _thundering_ pain, then the world was just... gone.

##  ****15** **

The sweat poured down Luz’s face and back. She wiped her brow to keep if from getting into her puffy, stinging eyes. The tiny fibers from the rope was making her nose and eyes run continuously. And the worry for Amity wasn’t helping the situation.

Her earrings had snapped after a while, but the butterfly clutches that kept the earrings in place were a much better cutting instrument. They were harder to hold steady, though.

A sudden, distant screeching sound made her drop the butterfly clutch.

_What was that?!_

She scrabbled around in the dirt to find the little metal thing again, but it was gone. She reached in her pocket and pulled out the last one.

“I bestow upon you, the sacred blade,” she said quietly, then bent over her work again.

 _When we get out of here, I’m going to make bread. And soup. And chocolate cake. And peanut and chocolate chip cookies. And fairy bread for King. With_ **_**lots** _ ** _of sprinkles!_

Her stomach rumbled at the thought.

##  ****16** **

Ahead of her, Lilith could hear the sound of voices. They sounded agitated - there was the jangle of maybe _keys -_

_Keys!_

She had to stop herself from sprinting forward. King tugged at the collar of her dress in an excited manner - he had heard the promising sound as well.

They crept down the long, dank tunnel. Lilith held her right arm behind her, shielding her readied spells from sight. She was so focused on remaining quiet that the voices made no sense to her. Ahead, she could see shadows moving on a rough wall. Something flapped onto the floor - a cowl! Something on it glinted - a star shaped pin! Lilith grabbed the demon and put him on the ground, then prowled forward, fighting the terrible urge to beat her chest and rush in with a roar. She stopped in the shadow of a stalagmite and looked around. There were two men, a torch, a table, two chairs, cards - and a jail cell. One man disappeared into the darkened cell and the other stood outside, looking angry. A shrill cry came from the cell - Lilith’s blood boiled - her arm raised of its own accord and fired all the readied spells onto the visible man - he was flung against the wall with a thump and a crack.

“Ern?!”

**_**Earn!** _ **

The memory of Amity’s face as she talked about her father’s study flashed across Lilith’s mind. Her hand moved in a blur and the second man rose off the ground, a large blue hand around his throat.

She strode forward, murder in her eyes.

“Aglrkh!” the man pleaded.

She raised a hand to end his miserable life - something bumped into her leg.

“Luz! Luz!” King cried, scampering into the shadowed cell. “Where is she?!” He whipped around, then jumped up and climbed the man like a tree. “Where is she?!”

Lilith lowered the man to the ground, the moment of murderous impulse had passed. She loosened her grip on the man’s throat slightly. After all, he might be useful.

“L-lower d-down, kuh-kuh-keys!” He tossed the ring of keys onto the ground.

“Sleep, wretch,” Lilith said in a cold voice. The man fell to the floor in a heap. King jumped off him.

“M-miss Clawthorne?!” a voice said from a corner.

“Light!” Lilith waved a hand. The bright wisp illuminated the cell. She stared at the _three_ children lying on the floor.

 _What -_ Through the shock, she spotted the shape of Amity’s face, then threw herself to her knees.

 _“Amity,”_ she breathed. For a moment, all she could focus on was her protege’s pale face, then a dull glow caught her eye.

The creature clamped over Amity’s heart pulsated. The elongated tail wrapped two times around the girl’s throat and the main body lay fat and swollen on her chest.

“Bile leech!” Lilith gasped, her chest going cold. She whipped around to look at the corner - Amity’s older sister had the same tail like thing wrapped around her neck - under her cowl, something bulged and glowed. Lilith panted a moment, horrified, then she rolled up the sleeve of her left arm.

“What are you doing?!” King asked, scampering over worriedly. “They’re fine and alive, we need to find Luz!”

“They are _not_ fine!” Lilith snapped. “That’s a bile leech - it’ll drain every drop of bile from you if you let it!”

“So?!”

“It can _kill_ you!” Lilith thrust her wrist forward, offering it to the creature. She touched her lower arm with her right hand and the veins began to glow with a bright, turquoise light. “ _Come on_ , you greedy little fuck!”

The bile leech’s tail unwound from around Amity’s neck, then lashed through the air and prodded along the thickest of the turquoise lines. The four little claws on the tip dug into Lilith’s skin and the mouth of the creature unhitched from Amity’s chest, retracting its teeth and tongue. With a grunt of effort, Lilith caught the vile thing in a blue sphere - it screeched in protest, then its neck snapped. It went limp.

“Get something to carry them in,” Lilith said to King.

“Ew, _why?!”_

“It’s got most of, if not all, of Amity’s magical bile in it - Eda can use it to put some of it back. All of it, maybe, if we’re quick enough.”

“Take it off me, please take it off me!” Em begged from the corner.

“Amity, my dear,” Lilith said gently, ignoring the older girl. She waved her hand and the ropes binding Amity’s arms and legs split. “Everything is going to be alright, I promise.” She positioned Amity on her back, then inspected the little wound on her chest. It looked like a little circular burn, with a ring of raised, red skin around it, a few millimeters wide. Around the outer circle were three indentations. The creature had been given access through a rough hole in Amity’s shirt.

Lilith stroked the girl’s cheek with the back of two fingers - to her immense relief, Amity’s eyes opened a slit.

“Hello, little one,” Lilith said softly. Without pausing to think, she drew a complicated sign in mid air, then bent low over the girl. “Breathe in, gently...” She closed her eyes.

Amity obeyed.

King watched Lilith with worried eyes. The woman hovered a few centimetres above Amity’s mouth. The veins that had been visible on Lilith’s arms a few moments earlier now appeared on her face. They pulsated, and as Amity breathed in, a wisp of bright, turquoise light was pulled from Lilith’s mouth.

Glowing lines appeared on Amity’s face and her chest expanded to maximum capacity in a fraction of a second - the intensity of the light between them made King raise his arm to shield his eyes. When he lowered it again, the glow on Lilith’s face was weaker - and the expression on it pained.

“Please...” Em whimpered.

Lilith panted for a moment, smiled faintly, then stroked Amity’s hair. The girl had regained some color in her cheeks. Lilith got to her feet and went over to Em.

“Please get it off,” she panted.

Lilith lifted the cowl - the creature underneath wasn’t as fat as the one she had pulled off Amity.

“Hold still. This will hurt.”

Em nodded quickly.

Lilith tempted the second bile leech like she had the first and snatched it mid-lunge. King came over with a bucket. He was now wearing Amity’s cowl. When Em’s arms and legs were freed, she crawled over to her brother.

“Ed! Ed! Miss Clawthorne, please help him!”

Lilith followed her. Ed’s bile leech lay dull and shriveled against his chest. Lilith’s eyes widened, then she reached out to check the boy’s pulse. It was there, but it was weak and thready.

“Is he - is he - “

“He’s alive, but that thing isn’t.” Lilith prodded the leech with a finger. It fell away, its tail cracking off. There was a dark mark on Ed’s skin, not vivid red like it had been on Amity’s. “I’m not sure, but that one might have been sick.”

“What does that mean? Will he be okay?” Em’s eyes darted between Lilith’s.

Lilith waved her finger over Ed. The glowing lines that appeared on his body were faint and discolored. She cracked her fingers, then carefully palpated Ed’s upper chest.

“I think his bile sack might be inflamed,” she said slowly.

“Can’t you - can’t you give him some of yours?” Em asked, her breaths shallow and rapid.

“I could,” Lilith looked at Em.

_She’s... just a frightened child. She doesn’t know what she’s asking of me. He might be too far gone, but I have to try. No matter what he’s done, he doesn’t deserve to expire in a place like this._

“And I will,” she continued. “But that means _you_ go without.”

“That’s fine! Just _help_ him!”

When Ed drew in Lilith’s light, it didn’t get to the blinding stage. In fact, his breath was so faint that some wisps escaped and faded into the air. The lines on his face turned more blue, but he didn’t stir. Lilith panted heavily. _A lot_ of her essentia magicae had just been wasted.

_Maybe it was too late._

“Now we go get Luz!” King insisted.

“But he’s not - he’s still so pale!” Em protested. “Can’t you give him more?”

“... No. I need to get us out of here as well. Carry your sister. I will take your brother.”

“O-okay.”

It was agony to stand up with the added weight of a teenage boy on her already aching bones, but the essentia magicae it would cost to levitate him alongside her would be greater than the pain carrying the boy would cost her later. She could live with pain. Without essentia magicae, the five of them might die. It was an easy decision to make.

The next question to answer was whether they should head up to the surface and send the Blight children away with Eda’s staff, or whether they should all proceed to find Luz. The idea of them splitting up made Lilith’s heart protest loudly. Now that she had finally found Amity, there was no chance in hell that she was going to let her go again.

They left the two guards locked in the cell, tied hand and foot.

“Where did they take you two from?” Lilith asked.

“We were getting something for our dad and they jumped us out of nowhere. In the market district.”

“Do you know why they took you?”

“The guards said they... wanted to ransom us,” Em panted.

“Ransom?”

“That’s what they said...”

A lot of guilt lifted from Lilith’s heart - Amity hadn’t been taken because of her association with Lilith! The kidnappers simply wanted to extort money from the Blight family!

They walked on for a few seconds, then Lilith paused and held out Eda’s staff toward Em.

“Here, I’m... trusting you with this, but make no mistake - “

“You hate us, I know,” Em gripped Amity’s calf more tightly. She had her sister slung over one shoulder.

“I don’t... hate you. I hate what you _did,”_ Lilith was surprised at her own words. But they were true. She had a much better idea of the environment the Blight children had been raised in now. “You... _need_ to do better for her. She’s your little sister. You’re _supposed_ to protect her, not torment her. Let’s find Luz and go. Home.”

Em remained quiet, but took the staff. Under the sweat and dirt, Lilith thought she looked ashamed.

##  ****17** **

The world was different. Small. Tight. So dark and nice but then so bright! She was not in her domain now, this was different. _Another’s_ lair. But something familiar - a smell of _her_ lair. Faint. Not new, not old. Sniff it out, find... find this that belongs in lair. One who makes lair smell good. Was intruder. No longer intruder. Now _part_ of lair.

Faint scent - part of lair went past. With others. Not walk. Carried. No foot smell. Only... _there_ smell.

And _another_ smell she knew. Old smell. From before. Must find and find out.

Eda sniffed the air, took a bite out of a box of clanking things, then lumbered off in search of Part Of Lair.

The scent hung in the air like mist. Different colors. Different textures. Part Of Lair’s smell was bright, but _different_ from last time she sensed it. She didn’t like the tightness of the tunnels. Sometimes they opened up and she could stretch her wings or climb on the ceiling. There were many tasty pointy rock things. Very salty. Very crunchy.

Sound from far away. Muttering in a voice she recognized. Part Of Lair! She trundled off, still chewing the rocks. Find Part of Lair. Yes.

##  ****18** **

“Yes!” Luz said in exhausted triumph. The rope between her feet finally gave way. With trembling hands, she freed her feet, then rubbed her sore ankles until she could feel her toes again.

She turned to face the door and inspected it carefully. There were hinges, but the pins were on the outside. There were metal studs. And a metal plate that presumably held the lock - but no keyhole on this side. The bars were too narrow to fit through. Maybe she could dig her way out? Before she tried that, she tried just pulling at the door - maybe the bad guys had just plain forgot to lock it? But no luck.

She got on her knees, then started to dig. At first there was a layer of densely packed dirt, then her scrabbling fingers hit something hard.

“Ow!” she yipped and put her fingers in her mouth. Her nail had bent the wrong way. She spat out some dirt, then went back to digging. She was a lot more careful now.

As she wiggled the first rock free, she heard something.

_Footsteps!_

She was just about to shout, when she stopped herself - instead she waved her lights away and pressed herself against the wall to the right of the door. Maybe the bad guys would fall for the whole ‘oh no the cell is empty, they must have escaped, but let’s open it to make sure’ - trick? And she had the rock now. A _weapon!_ She held it close to her chest as she waited - she was already tired and the thing was heavy.

A strange sound came from out in the corridor and the sound of footsteps stopped.

 _Is someone... sniffing? Is it_ **_**an animal?** _ ** _More than one person?_

“Awourrrh,” something said - now it sounded much closer than a second ago. Something obscured the dull light from outside.

_They’re looking into the cell!_

There was a snort, then the door shook as something hit it with massive force. Luz gasped and dropped her rock. She bent down quickly to find it again. As she scrabbled in the half-darkness, more blows landed on the door. Splinters hit her back before her hands closed on the shape of the rock - she whipped around as the door gave way.

“S-stay away!” she threatened.

Through the door came something big and dark.

“I - I have a rock!” she raised it to strike, then she saw a long, pale ear and a tuft of gray hair. She had seen that before. The creature leaned in close - Luz’s hand remained raised, frozen in fear. Luz was thoroughly sniffed from her belly all the way up her arm. The rock was taken out of her hand. A significant amount of slobber was left behind. There was a crunching sound.

“That was my rock...” Luz panted, pulling her arms close to her chest. She felt suddenly bereft as well as terrified. Like she had lost something precious. “I - I worked really hard to find it...”

The creature paused, then spat out most of the rock. It made a wet little thump as it hit the ground.

“Did... you just understand me?” Luz asked, surprise breaking through the fear.

The creature’s ears twitched and it turned its head quickly to look out the door - the sparse light caught in its eye - its _yellow_ eye.

“Eda,” Luz breathed. “Do you _understa_ \- “ she began in a loud, clear voice, then yelped as she was swept aside. She ended up pressed between something hard and something relatively soft and warm. Her heart pounded in her chest, but no teeth bit her, no claws ripped at her. Now she could see past the silhouette of Eda’s owl beast form and out into the corridor. For a moment, Luz remained frozen, then her ears picked up a sound.

_More footsteps!_

Before she could even begin to think of what to do, the pressure holding her against the wall vanished. With a scrabbling of claws and a rolling snarl, Owl-Eda pried herself out of the door, then dashed in the direction of the footsteps. There was a brief scream and a couple of thumps, then a moment of silence.

 _What just happened?_ Luz wondered, her thoughts moving slowly in her overstimulated mind. Carefully, she picked up her rock, then moved toward the door. She looked right and saw darkness, then left and saw two torches, one close and one further away. And Owl-Eda’s silhouette, moving closer. As she came into the light of the closest torch, Luz saw something dark trickle down her face.

“You’re hurt!” she gasped and rushed forward. She reached for Owl-Eda’s face without thinking and realized only when she was inside biting distance what a terrible mistake she might have made. She froze, staring at the yellow eye, hoping this wasn’t the last thing she’d ever see.

There was a tense moment, then Owl-Eda moved her head forward and put her cheeks between Luz’s unresistant hands.

“Aww...” Luz cooed in relief. The fear inside her faded.

“Wourhh,” Owl-Eda mewled, leaning over on Luz’s left hand heavily.

“It’s just a little cut,” Luz reassured her in a gentle voice. “You came to find me, didn’t you? You’re still in there, Eda.” It was such wonderful relief to not be alone anymore. “We have to find Amity, she was with me when I was taken - I haven’t seen anyone else - “

She was interrupted by a whimper from further ahead in the corridor. Owl-Eda reached out and grabbed Luz’s middle with one claw, then thrust her into the air. With a surprised squeak, Luz landed on her feathered mentor’s back.

“What are you - Eda! Whooooa, girl, slow down!”

Owl-Eda had begun to move forward as soon as Luz was on her back. Luz had a brief glimpse of someone lying on the floor - they grunted loudly as Owl-Eda stepped on them.

“Let’s find Amity and get out of here!”

“Wrourhhw!” Owl-Eda cried.

Luz wasn’t sure what that meant, but she felt rather than saw that they were moving faster than a few moments ago. She held on tightly, trying to see through the heavy darkness.

Owl-Eda stopped and sniffed at every fork. There were torches sometimes, or even what looked like fireflies in jars, but mostly there were ghostly mushrooms giving edges to the darkness.

They came upon a place with two whole torches - a cave. At the back of it was an unmistakable jail cell.

“There! Amity!” Luz slid off Owl-Eda’s back and hurried toward the bars. “Amity, I’m here, I’m gonna get you ou - “ she was pushed aside as Owl-Eda rammed the bars. Luz fell against the wall and heard two distinctly male voices scream out in terror.

“RAWAROOOHHHGH!” Owl-Eda growled.

“Monster! Monster!” one man screeched.

Luz took a torch off the wall, then approached the bars, Owl-Eda shied away with a hiss. Her eyes searched the cell, but only saw two men.

“Where’s. Amity.” Luz said loudly.

“A-buuh - huh?”

“Where’s! Amity!” she clanked the torch against the bars. “It’s not a difficult question!”

Owl-Eda reached in a claw through the bars, trying to reach the huddled men.

“Gone! She gone!” one man said, panic in his voice.

“The tall fcary lady took ‘em,” the other added quickly. “Call it off! Pleaf!”

“Tall scary lady?” Luz leaned closer. “With blue hair?! Long dark dress?!”

“Yeah, her!”

“Oh thank goodness,” Luz sagged against the metal. “Lilith...”

“Call it off! Call it off!”

Luz turned to Owl-Eda; she was reaching for something inside the cell, but not the men.

“She’s trying to grab something - kick it over to her.”

One man wriggled over onto his side, then managed to nudge whatever it was within Owl-Eda’s reach. She snatched it and flicked it out onto the floor. At first Luz thought it was a sausage, then she saw the ring of teeth.

“What _is_ that?” she wondered aloud, reaching out to touch it. Owl-Eda swatted her hand away with a hiss. “What is that?!” Luz turned back to the men.

“Just - just a bile leech, miss!”

“A what?!”

“Drinks your bile, doesn’t it, Ern? Keeps you calm and outta trouble! Kindest thing to do! Don’t wanna hurt the merchandise!”

Luz stared at the men, taking in their clothing for the first time. They both wore armor under their thick fur cloaks. They were _dressed_ for the cold, damp cave. The helmets by the table seemed to go together with their armor, too.

“You - you’re not prisoners... you’re _guards_...” Luz said in a stunned voice. She hadn’t been particularly nice to them because of the disappointment of not finding Amity, but now that felt entirely justified. “You should be _ashamed_.” She stepped away from the bars and put the torch back. “Who told you to kidnap us?”

“Boss! Our boss did!”

_“Why?!”_

“Dunno, miss! We just do what we’re told, don’t we Ern?! Opportunity of a lifetime, she said!”

“What were you going to do with us?!”

“Ransom! The Blights are rich! And you - you were gonna be sold to the collector, she’s always looking for rare creatures - wasn’t gonna hurt you none! She takes great care of her pets!”

Luz’s whole body went cold.

 _They were going to_ **_**sell me** _ ** _..._

“You’re lucky I don’t have the key to this door,” she said in a menacing voice. Owl-Eda could probably get through it given enough time, but Luz wanted to get out of here and find Amity and Lilith more than she wanted to... she didn’t even know what she wanted to do to the men. Without saying another word, she turned away. She put the torch back on the wall, then marched toward the tunnel they hadn’t arrived by. Owl-Eda followed once the fire was out of the picture.

Luz was fuming. She felt so incredibly angry.

_I’m not a pet!_

Owl-Eda grabbed her round the middle and threw her onto her back again, then they prowled on. It was reassuring to be carried, not to mention warming, Luz thought. Her anger gave way to worry.

“Do you think they went looking for me?” she said into the murky air. “Lilith and Amity, I mean.”

Owl-Eda made a grunt, then stopped and sniffed at the ground. She made a warbling, clucking-like sound, then hurried forward. Luz had to grip tightly to not fall off.

After a while, they found some stairs and Owl-Eda scampered up them before Luz could object.

“Hey, we don’t know if they’re still down here!” she argued. “We should look for them!”

Owl-Eda made a hiss. Luz didn’t know how to interpret that.

As they reached the top of the long staircase, they found a large room with lots of beds on the right. Luz froze, scared to run into more guards. Owl-Eda trotted forward, heading for the doorway straight ahead of them. They had almost reached it when someone cried;

“ _NOW!”_

Owl-Eda screeched and tumbled over, pulling a screaming Luz with her.

“Watch the claws, watch the claws!” someone yelled.

“Hey! No! Let _go!”_ Luz yelped as someone grabbed her by the collar and yanked her away from Owl-Eda - Owl-Eda made a yammering sound of dismay and fought against the glowing green ropes that ensnared her. Luz twisted around and kicked whoever was holding her in the stomach - they dropped her and she scrabbled away from them on all fours.

“Get the girl!”

“No, get _off!”_ Luz shrieked as someone grabbed her arm. She spun around and tried to kick the new person, but was blocked by a raised knee - she was pulled close by a hand at the back of her neck, and she turned her head and bit down on the soft skin of the person’s underarm.

“Aargh!” they yelped and let go of her. “She _bit_ me!”

Luz stumbled backward and hit something solid - an arm appeared from out of nowhere and snatched her against a chest.

“Leggo o’ me!” Luz panted, trying to scratch the arm and stomp on her captor’s feet. But this new person was wearing bracers and steel capped boots.

“Enough, pup!” Ingalill said in Luz’s ear. She held out her other arm, handing a long spear to the person Luz had bit. “Stop struggling or we’re going to start carving that thing up _right._ Here.”

Luz froze.

“Leave ‘er ‘lone!” she puffed. She was going purple in the face now.

“Get that thing ready to be moved,” Ingalill barked, adding her other arm to the choke hold.

Luz’s field of vision was shrinking to a tunnel and the voices grew further away. Then it was all dark. And quiet.

##  ****19** **

King’s head whipped around.

“Luz!” he gasped, then set off down a corridor.

“Hey! Wait!” Lilith hissed after him.

“I heard her!” he shouted over his shoulder.

Lilith followed him - what else was there to do?

After two quick turns, they found themselves back in the corridor with the stairs leading up - Lilith was completely disoriented - she had thought they were a lot further away from them than that. Now she could hear the scuffle going on above. An animal wailed and King stopped in his tracks.

“Eda! She must have found Luz! And they’re in trouble!” he jumped from foot to foot, shaking his hands.

“Are they going to come downstairs?!” Em panted.

Lilith tensed at the words, staring up at the ceiling. But the sounds above grew fainter.

“I think they’re moving away,” she said hoarsely.

They waited until things had gone quiet again, then crept up the stairs as quietly as they could. The weight of Ed was really starting to take a toll on Lilith. She wanted to put the boy down, but knew she wouldn’t be able to pick him up again if she did.

 _You’ve been through wor - no, you haven’t been through worse than this. But you have to get through it. Many lives are in your hands tonight - and you are_ **_**not** _ ** _going to lose a single one. The boy is still breathing. Still. Breathing._

She gritted her teeth. The taste of blood was in her mouth, but she pressed on.

King led the way up the stairs, then scanned the sleeping quarters for stragglers. He scampered across the floor, then waved for the others to follow.

He remembered the way they had come in and ran ahead of Lilith and Em to make sure the coast was clear. He wasn’t sure if it was a good thing that they hadn’t run into anyone yet. It had probably taken a lot of people to restrain Eda.

Up ahead was a big room, he remembered. With a bunch of boxes and cages.

When they got closer, King started to hear voices again.

“Put it in the big cage!”

He waved for Lilith and Em to slow down. They approached cautiously and Lilith chanced a little peek into the large room. Three people were stuffing a big black creature into a cage, three others were carrying boxes from one end of the room to the other, and one person was tying Luz to a chair.

“Where’s Eda?!” Lilith whispered, looking around for her sister.

“There!” King pointed to the creature in the cage.

“... _Edalyn_...” Lilith breathed, shocked to her core. Something bumped her elbow and she turned to see Em swaying on the spot. She quickly put Ed down against the stalagmite, then grabbed Amity from Em’s shoulder.

“Keep them... safe...” Em mumbled as she folded up. Lilith quickly bent to check on the girl. She noticed a purple line on her neck, then lifted her cowl. The wound on the girl’s chest had turned dark, like Ed’s. Tendrils of purple radiated out from it. Lilith quickly checked on Ed - his wound looked about the same. She quickly put Amity down to check on hers - but it was red, like before. 

##  ****20** **

“Alright, pup, wake up,” Ingalill said, tapping Luz on the forehead.

Luz drew in a sharp breath, then looked around in alarm.

“Tell me how to use this thing.” Ingalill held out something rectangular.

Luz blinked at it in confusion.

“’s my phone,” she said groggily. Her head drooped.

“Hey!” Ingalill grabbed Luz by the chin and shook her head from side to side. From behind her, the bird creature snarled and her men yelled. She didn’t turn around. “Tell me how to use it.”

Behind the stalagmite, Lilith froze and slowly turned to look at Ed and Em with wide eyes, the skin all over her body had suddenly gone ice cold.

 _How does_ **_**she** _ ** _know about Luz’s phone? Why in the world would the twins tell her something like that?! Did she... torture them? Torture Amity?!_

Luz blinked up at the woman in front of her.

“You... were in the bathroom...” she said in a suspicious voice. “What - “

The slap floored her, literally. Behind the stalagmite, Lilith had to grab King to stop him from just charging in. The cage shook as Eda thrashed against the sides.

Ingalill squatted down next to Luz and held out the phone again, ignoring the noise behind her completely.

“Tell me... how to use this thing.”

Luz panted, her eyes darting everywhere. She couldn’t think. She could hear Eda roaring and men shouting.

_Where’s Amity?! Where’s Lilith?!_

Ingalill sighed, then stood up. She placed a heavy boot on Luz’s knee.

“Not gonna ask again, pup.”

Luz winced at the rising pain in the joint.

“The code is... 2-9-8-7-2**,” she managed. She didn’t want the woman to put any more weight on her knee. But she did, and Luz looked up at her in alarm. “You - you’ve gotta push the button at the bottom! Then put in the numbers! 2-9-8-7-2! 2-9-8-7-2!”

Ingalill turned the device the other way around, then pushed the button. The side facing up grew bright. Numbers appeared. She put in the digits carefully, then the surface filled with color and the whole thing vibrated and several noises happened in quick succession. Ingalill observed it all coldly.

“I was told there was a recording on this device. How do I access it?”

“Um - “ Luz tried to think, but the boot on her knee was the only thing she could focus on. “Bottom right of the screen, multicolored icon, spiky! Just press it!”

The device now showed a series of little squares. At the top of the screen was the word ‘Gallery’.

“Should be the - the one at the top left!”

Ingalill pressed the little square and turned the screen.

A pitiful whine came from Luz, then a screech and a bunch of clanks rent the air.

“Please get off m-my _knee_...” she whimpered. But the woman ignored her, staring at the device in her hand.

“Do something!” King begged, tugging at Lilith’s dress. “Help them!”

“Stay with the children,” Lilith whispered to him.

There was only one thing Lilith could think to do. She stood up, took careful aim, then fired a spell toward the cage. There was a clunk, then several people gasped. A low, menacing growl rolled around the cave, then Eda broke her way out of the cage and jumped two of the men. They went down with terrified yells and the remaining people scattered in panic. In the ensuing chaos, Lilith snuck into the room and took up station behind a stack of boxes. A man thudded into the wall a few meters to her right - he crumpled to the ground and lay still. Spells fizzled to either side of her and a lot of people were shouting. Lilith saw one woman throw herself behind the next stack of boxes and quickly aimed a stunning spell at her.

 _How many are left?_ She thought, then took a peek around the crates.

“Ólafur, _upp med dig, ditt jävla kräk!***”_ a woman roared.

There were three people still standing - one of them had a scar across her face. 

_The leader!_

Sure enough, Ingalill Grönvall ordered her remaining people into formation around the constantly moving Eda. As soon as she made an attempt to attack one of them, the others threw spells or banged their weapons against the walls or floor. It seemed to confuse Eda, distracting her enough to keep her from mauling them. One of them was always at her back. She was moving in a tight circle around something on the ground; Luz.

 _If I could just take one of them out!_ Lilith thought. She readied a spell, then another. The strain on her was building to critical levels now. She didn’t have a lot of spells left in her. _Got to make them all count!_

When Eda changed her attention to the left-most woman, Lilith fired off the ice spell. The woman slipped and Eda lunged.

“Someone’s there!” the middle woman shouted, pointing toward Lilith. Lilith released her second spell, but the woman dove out of the way and the force push hit Eda instead. With a yowl, she smacked into the wall. Vines shot up out of the ground and wall and tethered her there. She roared and thrashed, but the plants held her tight.

Vines exploded out of the ground at Lilith’s feet, too - with a fraction of a second to spare, she blinked away to safety, swinging her staff at the woman she had missed. She went down with a grunt, hitting her head on the wall.

“Now this is an interesting development,” Ingalill said, hauling Luz up by her collar. Lilith turned around to face her. “What did I do to get the Clawthorne sisters back together, hm? Honestly I am a little flattered.”

“Put. The girl. Down,” Lilith stated in a cold voice, ignoring the foul woman’s question. She brushed the hair out of her eyes, then forced herself to stand up straight. Every part of her screamed in protest.

“Lilith! Where’s - gh! Amity?!” Luz grunted, twisting in Ingalill’s grasp.

“She’s safe.”

The relief on Luz’s face was clear.

“You _know_ this girl?” Ingalill asked, shaking Luz in Lilith’s direction. “Is that why you’re here?”

“Yes. Let her go.”

“Or what? You’re going to set your older sister on me again?”

“Worse than that.” Lilith’s voice was deathly calm.

“Age hasn’t been kind to you, either,” Ingalill smirked, bringing Luz close. “Both your minds are going. I guess Eda’s is already gone. What a _sorry_ sight.”

Lilith’s eyes flashed.

“You have some nerve, insulting my sister in front of me.”

“Yeah, step off!” Luz growled, twisting in Ingalill’s iron grip.

“Such a lot of fight in this one, it’s a real shame to see her go.” Ingalill squeezed Luz’s neck, eyeing Lilith carefully for her reaction. “Send your staff away, or the girl goes bye-bye.”

“Let go of her or I’ll put you in a world of hurt.”

They locked eyes, sea foam green staring into brilliant blue. They both knew the other wasn’t going to back down. 

_As soon as she blinks -_ the instant it happened, both women acted.

Ingalill snapped her fingers and the vines tethering Eda to the floor burst into flame - at the same time Lilith released her last spell, channeling it through her staff.

“ _Body swap!”_ she shouted.

##  ****21** **

A surprised scream rent the air and Lilith opened her new eyes, looking down at the girl in her grip. Everything was so sharp in her vision. She let Luz down quickly, then turned to look... at her own body. Her head swam to see herself - she was pale, dirty and sweaty.

“What! Did you _do?!”_ Ingalill said with Lilith’s lips. She crumpled to the ground with a sputtering sound, the raven topped staff clattered to the floor. 

Lilith waved a hand and the flaming vines vanished. As soon as she was free, Eda sprang up and charged at her, eyes burning with rage.

Lilith pushed Luz out of the way and raised her arms to protect her face. Eda crashed into her and bore her to the ground in a tumble of vicious growls and smoldering feathers.

“Eda, it’s _me!”_ Lilith screamed desperately. “It’s me! It’s Lily!”

At the word ‘Lily’ the snarling face above her turned confused.

“Yes! Tell her who you are!” King came scampering over.

“It’s okay, Eda!” Luz joined in.

“It’s Lily!” Lilith panted, staring up at the mismatched eyes. “Your little sister - we - we used to have cake in the garden, e-even though it was _Tuesday_ \- “

Eda turned her head sideways, leaned in close, drew in a deep sniff, then growled.

“Tell her something she thinks is funny!” King shouted.

“What!?” Lilith gasped.

“Just do it!”

“I - I wet my pants the first time I saw the Emperor’s Coven in person!” Lilith blurted in desperation, closing her eyes. There was another snarl and Lilith braced herself for the afterlife, thinking dully that she hadn’t had a vacation in more than three years and how nice it would be to have some time off. But no teeth tore out her jugular, no claws ripped her to shreds. Instead, the weight on her borrowed body lessened and a very familiar snort of laughter could be heard. She opened her eyes and stared up at Eda, now back to her normal shape.

“You had to wear those awful pants from the lost and found!” she cackled, leaning on her arms still pinning Lilith to the ground. “Ohhh... good times.”

“Or _traumatizing_ \- will you get _off_ me already?!” Lilith barked, blushing now that the danger was passed.

“Woowee, what happened here?” Eda looked around at the destruction, patting out a few still smouldering patches on her dress. “Gotta say, it’s _absolutely_ weirding me out to see _you_ in a body that I - “

“I do _not_ ,” Lilith held up a hand to stop her sister from continuing. “Want to know.”

“Luz!” Eda spotted the girl lying on the ground. She hurried over, waving her hand to free her from the ropes.

“Really gotta learn how to do that,” Luz muttered hoarsely.

“You okay, kid?!”

“Bit banged up - where’s - where’s Amity?”

“Lemme look at you,” Eda grabbed Luz by the cheeks and turned her head. “What happened, how did we get _here?”_

“Amity is safe. She’s behind that pillar with her brother and sister,” Lilith pointed to the stalagmite.

“... Brother and sister?” Luz asked, blinking up at her in confusion. “What?”

“Yeah what the what?” Eda looked at Lilith too.

“I’m... not sure what happened,” Lilith shook her head. “When we found them, only Em was awake. She said they had been taken from the market district. But this one,” she pointed to her borrowed chest. “Knew about Luz’s phone. And what was on it.”

“ _What?!”_ Eda snapped.

“They put bile leeches on the Blight children. I think Amity is alright, but not sure about the other two. Em seemed fine earlier, but she collapsed just after we got here. I suspect the boy’s bile sack is inflamed, maybe hers is too. He’s... in pretty bad shape.” She glanced at her own feebly stirring body, then started moving toward the stalagmite.

“Inflamed?” Eda gave Lilith a sharp look.

“I... gave Amity and the boy _donum lucis****_.”

“You what?!” Eda glanced over at Lilith’s body as she followed her sister. “Is that why you haven’t swapped back?! _Lily!_ You drained yourself less than two weeks ago!” Eda looked furious.

“I know!”

“I mean, _clever_ to body swap to make Ingalill go through it instead of you, but _shit - “_

Lilith reached the Blight children, then waved her hand over them. They rose into the air and followed her back into the room. Luz hobbled to meet her, reaching out for Amity’s hand.

“ _Querida_...” Luz breathed.

Eda had found a roll of thick fabric and placed it on the ground for the kids to lay on. At least it would be dry, if not actually warm.

“What’s wrong with them?” Luz asked as she sat down next to Amity’s shoulder, clutching her hand with a gentle, two handed grip.

“They had most, if not all of their magical bile drained,” Lilith explained.

“The teethy sausage,” Luz said under her breath.

“Huh?” Eda looked at Luz.

“After you broke me out of my cell, you found where they kept Amity, but I guess _you_ got there before us,” Luz looked up at Lilith.

“I did what now?” Eda blinked at Luz.

“You found me and broke down the door. And tried to eat my rock.” Luz pulled out a stone with a bite taken out of it out of her pocket. She gave it to Eda, who stared at it in stunned silence. “I got upset you took it, and you spat it out. You _listened_ to me. Then you put me on your back and found Amity’s cell, because I asked you to.”

“Huh...”

“There were two men in there and you reached inside, at first I thought it was to try to get _them_ but you wanted the teethy sausage. You hissed at me when I tried to touch it. The guards said you’d been there,” Luz looked at Lilith again. “And... they said they were going to sell me to a collector. As a _pet._ ”

“They what...” Eda breathed, still looking at the rock in her hands.

Lilith looked down at her borrowed body with disgust.

“Then you took me upstairs and we got captured. You went so mad every time they hurt me,” Luz looked at Eda now, and Eda quickly reached out to hug her.

“I found your message on the bathroom stall,” Eda whispered against Luz’s locks. “My clever, _clever_ , resourcefulgirl, oh... You did so good, kid...”

“I was hoping someone would s-see it,” Luz laughed through the tears now rolling down her cheeks. “I saw someone do that in a movie once..."

“It was a very smart thing to do, Luz,” Lilith nodded at her, her eyes extremely sincere. “It made all the difference.”

“I heard you scream from above us,” King said, joining in on Eda and Luz’s hug. “We found the stairs again and followed you. They put you in a cage, Eda!”

“How did you get out?” Luz asked, wiping her cheek.

“ _I_ let her out,” Lilith said quietly. “There were so many people running around. I... knew you would want to hurt them, so... I let you.”

Eda stared at Lilith.

“You took most of them down, then I accidentally hit you with a spell and this one caught you in some vines. I was running out of time, so... I thought ‘what would Eda do?’ and... the answer jumped out at me.”

“A body swap,” Eda finished for her. A faint smile appeared on her face. “Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks...”

“Too soon, Edalyn,” Lilith muttered.

“When she released you from the vines, you attacked her,” Luz said, her head leaning on Eda’s chest. “But you listened...”

“Yeah - that time in the pest control wagon? I brought you back with a rage squeal, so... I told Lilith to make you laugh,” King added.

“Okay, but... what’s with the phone thing?” Eda looked from Luz to Lilith’s borrowed face.

“I don’t know. But I don’t think _they’ll_ be able to tell us any time soon.” She nodded at the Blight twins. “But _someone_ will...” she got to her feet and walked over to her own body.

Ingalill had managed to crawl a few meters and had her hand about an arms length from a dropped sword.

“Don’t be _stupid,”_ Lilith said, kicking it away.

“What - sdid youh do! To me!?” Ingalill slurred through a grimace of pain.

“You are going to tell me how you’re involved in all this,” Lilith said calmly.

“Orrh what?!”

Lilith slowly squatted down next to Ingalill and reached out a hand, then slowly and firmly pressed a finger down on her upper thigh. Ingalill twitched, her face going red as she frothed at the mouth. Lilith lessened the pressure and Ingalill panted, still twitching.

“Tell me.”

Ingalill’s eyes darted all over the place.

“I thought! The Emperor’s Coven - wasn’t allowed to - use _torture?!”_ she spat.

“You took. _My Amity.”_ Lilith’s eyes were hard as steel. She put a finger on Ingalill’s hip, just below the hip bone - a brief shriek left the woman. “You deserve no mercy. But I will give it to you, if you answer my questions. If you do not... I will prod you where it _really_ hurts.”

Ingalill’s breathing was gusty and irregular. The sweat was pouring down her face.

“Thhhhhey came! On Sunday! The twins! Wwanted a thing! Found!”

“What thing?”

“That!” she flicked her eyes to Luz’s phone lying on the ground a few meters away. “Said they’d pay! Me handsomely! I had them followed! Found who they were, was easy - they practically! Served themselves up on a platter! Ah-harrogant little _pups!”_

“’Opportunity of a lifetime’,” Luz said from behind Lilith. She was standing up, with Eda’s help. That’s what the guards had told her in the cell.

“Yes!” Ingalill panted, looking up at Luz with glassy eyes. “Told me! Where you’d be! Had it all planned out, talked to me like I was! Something disgusting they’d stepped in! FFfffff, make it **_**stop**_** _!”_ She stared up at Lilith, her teeth bared.

“They came to you, wanted to pay you to get Luz’s phone, then you double crossed them to ransom _them_ , the phone _and_ Amity back to their parents - and sell Luz to a collector? Have I got that right?” Eda asked with a scowl, her free hand closing into a fist.

“’Sss!” Ingalill hissed and nodded. _“Now make it stop!”_

Lilith stared down at her own body.

“ _Lily,”_ Eda said.

Lilith picked up on the rage in her sister’s voice. She didn’t need to turn around to know what she wanted. It was the same thing she wanted.

“Cover your ears, Luz,” she said in a deadpan voice. Ingalill’s eyes widened, then flicked to Lilith’s extending hand. Her fingers pinched the skin just above the hip joint and twisted it, slowly. The scream that left Ingalill echoed through the cave. As soon as Lilith let go, she burst into tears.

“Mmmercy! Mercy!” Ingalill sobbed, curling in on herself. “You p-promised me mercy!”

“And you believed me?” Lilith raised a borrowed eyebrow, giving Ingalill a cold, condescending look.

“Was that really necessary?” Luz asked, looking up at Eda uncertainly.

“She deserves much worse than a hip pinch,” Eda said, her voice hard.

“You are going to rot in a cell, in the deepest part of the conformatorium,” Lilith said, standing up. “You’ll like it there. The _other_ cockroaches do.” She turned to Eda. “Let’s get them ready to be moved.”

“I saw the recording!” Ingalill snarled through her tears. “I’ll tell them! I’ll tell them what I saw!”

“You can go right ahead and do that,” Lilith turned her head to glance down at her own body. “Even if someone were to believe you, it is no skin off my back if the Blight family get embarrassed.”

To everyone’s surprise, Ingalill managed a bark of laughter.

“You call owning a Trediouz statue embarrassing?!”

Lilith looked down at Ingalill sharply.

“What?!”

“It was on the table the human landed on!”

“What is she talking about?” Luz asked Eda, leaning away from Ingalill, feeling terribly uncomfortable. Even though she knew it was Ingalill’s... _mind_ or whatever in Lilith’s body, it was scary to see that sort of expression on a face she knew to be kind and understanding.

“Trediouz statues are old relics - very _illegal_ old relics,” Eda said, exchanging a troubled look with Lilith. She went to fetch the phone. Now knowing what to look for, Eda spotted the red statue for a split second before it smashed to the ground. It had been under a shaped, silver lid.

“Evidence of owning one carries a long prison sentence,” Lilith explained. “They are dark objects, used in terrible magic.”

Lilith remembered Mr Blight staring at the phone screen in her dining room. Maybe he had spotted it too. Was _that_ why he had raised his hand to his son?

 _“We were getting something for our dad. In the market district.”_ That’s what Em had told Lilith by the cell.

 _Did their father send them to do it? Or was that just a lie to make it more believable for them to be in the market district - if they even were there. Amity told me they like to spin the truth. Even_ **_**their** _ ** _father knows better than to send two teenagers to deal with criminals._

“So let’s make a deal!” Ingalill panted, looking between the three of them. “Let me go, and I won’t tell anyone what I saw!”

“Hah!” Eda said. “Pull the other one, it’s got bells on. You have nothing we want. Just put her out of her misery, Lily.”

Luz looked up at her in alarm.

“And what I mean by that is to make her go to _sleep_ , not kill her, obviously.” Eda rolled her eyes. “We should get a wiggle on. Must be past midnight by now.”

“Sleep,” Lilith said, drawing a spell circle over Ingalill’s head. “What a vile creature. You certainly know how to pick them, Edalyn.”

“She used to be _naughtily_ devious and clever, not... a bastard who preys on _kids_. Let’s tie these idiots up and leave ‘em nice and tidy for the guard I’m assuming you’re going to send here?”

“Yes, let’s.”

As Eda and Lilith did that, Luz staggered over to the Blights. All three of them lay there, looking peaceful, in the middle of this chaotic, battle scarred room.

“It’s going to be alright, Amity,” Luz reassured her unconscious friend, then looked at Ed and Em.

 _How do they come up with these ideas?_ She wondered. _Awful pranks, lying,_ ** _ **stealing**_** _... I hope Amity never goes back to them. They don’t deserve her. But... they must have been really scared, too. They didn’t ask for anyone to be kidnapped, that was Ingalill’s idea. But still... If they had just accepted their punishment... And now they’re really sick..._

“Um...” Luz began as she took a closer look at Em’s face. “Are there supposed to be purple... _squiggles_ on her face?”

“Nope, that’s bad. That’s really bad, _crap_.” Eda came over and bent over the Blight twins. The marks were more evident and wide spread on Em’s face. “They need a healer. And I think you do too, Lily.”

Lilith looked down at her own body. It was covered in sweat and shivering, despite the sleep spell.

“We can’t just walk into the sanatorium with three unconscious children and the leader of the Emperor’s Coven,” Lilith said, shaking her head. “And two wanted criminals, a human and a demon.”

Eda sighed. “I know someone.”

“A licensed healer?”

“... In a manner of speaking.”

* * *

End notes: (sticking them here because apparently they're too long!)

Wow, I am exhausted from writing this part.

I originally thought of ending this part in the series after section 20 (with Lilith screaming “Body swap!”), but I just couldn’t do two cliffhangers in a row, that would have been... very frustrating to read. After reading more than 15000 words, you guys deserve some kind of a resolution. More to come, though. Ohoho. The angst.

* fähund = (Swedish) an old insult. Along the lines of bastard, blackguard, crook, untrustworthy and nasty person. The word literally means herding dog, but is only used as an insult. If you want to refer to a herding dog you say ‘vallhund’.

** 2-9-8-7-2 spells out _Azura_. Thought that might be an appropriate password for Luz’s phone.

*** “Ólafur, upp med dig, ditt jävla kräk!” = (Swedish) Ólafur, get up, you fucking creature! Or, on your feet, you bastard, asshole, whatever. “Kräk” can mean a domestic animal in pathetic condition, but can also mean vomit or cowardly/wretched/useless person.

**** Donum lucis = gift of light. Essentially a field mana transfusion. There are a bunch of mana replenishing spells in games. Mana drain. Mana leech. Mana _burn_ (ooh interesting, might do something with that at some point). My headcanon is that anything to do with magic bile/mana/essentia magicae manipulation is considered taboo, like blood bending in Avatar the last Airbender, or blood magic in the Dragon Age franchise (seriously great first game, I loved it. Yes, I have a Queen of Ferelden shirt. Worked hard for that achievement. Also the name ‘Ostegar’ is taken from there, it’s where the first game begins. I made it into a holiday on the Boiling Isles called Ostegar day). What Lilith did was very, very risky.

RE: Lilith using her own body to (more or less) torture Ingalill. First, I really like the idea, second; being randomly thrown into a body like Lilith’s (with fibro pain exacerbated by carrying a 60+ kg teenager, the extreme emotional stress of the day, a rapidly approaching moon time, plus all the symptoms of draining yourself) is a pretty big deal. It would be a _huge_ difference from Ingalill’s normal state. So her reaction is justified, I think. Some of you might think that “just poking a hip” under those circumstances wouldn’t illicit quite as dramatic a response as the one(s) I’ve written, and to those people I say: bruh if you don’t know what that kind of pain is like, count yourself lucky. Also it’s kind of funny and sad to me how much pain you can get used to if it’s introduced to you slowly. Sudden intense pain you haven’t had time to mentally prepare for is a lot harder to deal with. And it’s also very clever of Lilith to use her own condition to get information out of Ingalill. Since she _is_ “just” poking the hip area, it’s not going to leave any lasting damage on herself. I’ve had the idea that Lilith or Eda would use a body swap to leave an enemy with their pain as a way to either contain them or get information from them since Boiling Drain, so I’m glad I got an opportunity to use it.

If I were to describe the pain Ingalill goes through... Imagine you have the flu. Your joints ache and you feel really frail. Combine that with “the day after a seriously over the top work out”-muscle pain. And being dehydrated. Imagine all that in the most sensitive part of your body, the part that hurts you because of that injury when you were a kid or the body part you’re extra protective over - it’s a very _vulnerable_ pain. You can’t brace yourself for it. It completely disarms you and you can’t get away from it. It’s a terrible feeling.

Edit: HOLY SHIT GUYS GROM WE HAD GROM I’M STILL SCREAMING IT’S TRUE WE WEREN’T READY OMG LOOK AT THEM GO HOLY FUCK I LOVE THIS SHOW SO MUCH I CAN’T AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;w;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

I feel ***incredibly*** validated in my interpretation of Amity’s character in particular!!!! Her biggest fear is rejection! That’s the theme her nightmares in the earlier parts were based around! I’m crying! I feel so fucking smug! And Dana retweeted some #grom art I made! I’m! JGREHUREGHEURGHKJSDKFSD btw my twitter is @Evilsnotbag

Also now that we know Luz is lactose intolerant let’s just say all the milk was lactose free and/or soy milk. /End edit.

Please tell me what you thought about this part! I’ve never really written (what I will loosely call) mystery before. The figuring out of a crime, type deal. There were many, many rewrites because of all the story lines that needed to be connected. I hope I haven’t left any loose ends or plot holes. Or written something that just doesn’t make sense. Please tell me how the “mystery” unfolded to you. Was it obvious? Did it keep you guessing? I mean I know it’s basically just a linear series of events and not many suspects, but was it entertaining? Did you get that ‘I need to know how this ends!!! Gasp! But I thought -’ feeling? Maybe I should really get a beta reader, ahaha.. ha. Anyone interested? Serious replies only please.

As I’m sure you know by now, my stuff is usually hurt/comfort and angst. It was a nice and distracting challenge to write this.

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a little video on how to pronounce Ingalill Grönvall's name:  
> https://twitter.com/Evilsnotbag/status/1293843293386747904


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